Against the Ghetto Plantation

If Frederick Douglass walked today's ghettos, he would witness a new-age style of slavery, plantations without the lash and chains. He would soon be outraged that government overseers are perpetuating generations of dependency through policies designed to capture the votes of the ignorant. Of the people he would ask, "What have you done with your freedom? Where is your dignity and self-respect?"
Frederick Douglass was born about 1818 on a Maryland plantation. Following common practice, he was taken from his mother to be raised with a brood of other children until he was old enough to work. He did not know his father. At the age of eight or nine, his master sent him to work for the Auld family in the city of Baltimore. Hugh Auld was a shipbuilder.
Douglass served as a houseboy to mistress Sofia and as a caretaker of their little son Tommy. Sophia had had no experience with slaves. She was a kindhearted and pious young woman, who treated Douglass with the same gentleness that she...(Read Full Article)